I'm not sure why people are convinced we are 'a soft touch.' I understand the disappointment of losing our best players, we all feel this. However, as several people have pointed out, this is not a simple market-place. It is lopsided, because the player is being offered a huge pay rise. Add the relative glamour of moving up the leagues and the seductive tones of the player's agent, and it is hard to stand in the way of a move. You can do it, but it helps if there is a bidding war so that you can say to the player, 'We will let you go, but it might be to Club X or it might be to Club Y'. It seems to be recognised as fact that we did a deal with Rob Dickie along the lines of 'just give us one more season', and such an arrangement is attractive to the club. However, for the player, during that year they are only one serious injury away from losing their chance.
I'm no expert on relative values, but as others have said, Peterborough are an interesting point of comparison. It may simply be the case that they have been operating the model longer, and investing a bit more money in it. So they offer rather higher contracts to rather better young players, who in turn attract higher fees.